Bagalkot

Bagalkot lies in northern Karnataka on a branch of the Ghataprabha River. Inscriptions in the surrounding area preserve the former name Bagadige. Local traditions connect the town with Ravana and with a gift of bangle money from the Bijapur court; these stories are traditions rather than established accounts of its origins.

The town passed through the domains of Vijayanagara, the Adil Shahis of Bijapur, the Peshwas, Mysore and other Maratha rulers before British control in 1818. Its history belongs to the wider Deccan, where changing powers governed a landscape of river valleys and long-established settlements.